Recruits are a really important part of your covenant. While you as the leader of your covenant tend to be stronger than recruits, you can have up to 5 of them so they make up a very large portion of your covenant's power. Recruits seem pretty simple up front, but there is a lot to take into account when choosing which recruits to keep and which ones to recruit.

Setting up trade routes can be very beneficial for both covenants. Covenant's with trade routes tend to like each other more and they will over time both receive more crystals to be used for guards, trade, and starting rumors.

Attack and defense go hand in hand. The higher someone's attack value, the more likely their physical attack will hit. The higher someone's defense value, the less likely an enemy's physical attack will hit them.

Depths of Peril is a little different than a lot of RPGs when it comes to armor. Armor does not help you avoid being hit in any way. What it does is when you are hit, it absorbs some of the damage. The higher your armor value, the more damage you will absorb.

Your lifestone is what resurrects you and your recruits when you are killed, so it is kind of important. Also, all of the members of your covenant are bound to the lifestone so if it is destroyed, they are all killed. So here is how your and your enemy lifestones work: